Rosewill Nebula GX50 is an affordable USB headset with an impressive list of features, considering its $45 price. It has a metal headband, rubberized ear cups, an in-line control unit, RGB LEDs and 7.1 surround sound. Are we crowning the new king of budget gaming headsets?

The Phanteks Eclipse P300 aims to push the envelope of what is entry level by providing a high-quality build with the looks and an interesting feature set for those on a budget. With its mix of materials and RGB elements, it seems to bring everything important to the table, but only a closer look will tell!

CORSAIR, a world leader in PC components, high-performance gaming hardware and enthusiast memory, today announced a new addition to its line-up of performance RGB-lit DDR4 memory, VENGEANCE RGB White. Clad in a sleek new white heat spreader, VENGEANCE RGB White's RGB LED-lit lightbar appears brighter than ever, bringing a vivid burst of customizable color and a distinctive new look. Available in a wide range of speeds and capacities to suit any system and compatible with all current Intel and AMD DDR4 motherboard platforms, VENGEANCE RGB White brings an instant performance and visual upgrade to any PC.

With a legacy of memory performance stretching back more than 20 years, CORSAIR continues to give PC enthusiasts the room to push their systems to the limit, and VENGEANCE RGB White is no exception. The new white headspreader works to actively cool each memory module, maintaining performance and stability even at the highest frequencies. A custom performance PCB and specially designed lighting circuitry ensure there's zero performance impact when comparing VENGEANCE RGB White to similarly clocked DDR4 kits, while XMP 2.0 support on every kit makes sure running your memory at its rated speed is just a single setting away.

Atari is back in the console game with their upcoming Ataribox which is slated for a late spring 2018 release. At the heart of the system is a specially designed AMD processor running on Radeon Graphics technology. According to the Atari team, they've opted to implement a customized version of Linux operating system into the Ataribox to bring a full PC experience for the TV. Linux allows users to customize the OS the way they want it while also giving them access to games they've bought from other content platforms. The Ataribox will come preloaded with many classic Atari retro titles, so that gamers can relive their childhood days. However, it will also support modern titles from other studios. Besides gaming, we can use the Ataribox for other tasks like running applications, multimedia streaming, web browsing or checking social media.

Initial images revealed the Ataribox sporting a black plastic casing. It will be available in two editions: black and red with a glass front panel or wooden front panel. We also noticed numerous modern ports at the back of the console. So far, we counted four USB ports, one HDMI port, and an Ethernet port for internet access. There is also a SD card slot for expandable storage.

Lenovo (HKSE: 992) (ADR: LNVGY) today announced at the Microsoft Ignite conference, a new device to tackle conference room complexities and help companies embrace the digital transformation of modern workspaces. The Lenovo ThinkSmart Hub 500 is a Skype Room Systems device that manages collaboration within modern meeting rooms. With the ability to simply connect remote and local participants to Skype for Business meetings and shared content, it eliminates the hassle of sharing personal laptop screens and messing about with cables. Developed in cooperation with Microsoft, the Smart Hub 500 is an all-in-one device, with a 360-degree rotatable 11.6-inch display and runs Microsoft Windows 10 IoT Enterprise.

The Smarter Office is Today
The continuing evolution of technology and the focus on digital transformation brings smarter devices to enable improved collaboration spaces and meeting environments. 92% of businesses are planning Workplace Transformation Initiatives (WTI) to build smart offices that enhance individual and collaborative work experiences for local and remote users. The exponential growth of smarter offices creates opportunities for hardware and software vendors, resellers and systems integrators as customers look to fuel investments into WTI.

Intel has been steadily increasing its portfolio of products in the AI space, through the acquisition of multiple AI-focused companies such as Nervana, Mobileye, and others. Through its increased portfolio of AI-related IP, the company is looking to carve itself a slice of the AI computing market, and this sometimes means thinking inside the box more than outside of it. It really doesn't matter the amount of cores and threads you can put on your HEDT system: the human brain's wetware is still one of the most impressive computation machines known to man.

That idea is what's behind of neuromorphic computing, where chips are being designed to mimic the overall architecture of the human brain, with neurons, synapses and all. It marries the fields of biology, physics, mathematics, computer science, and electronic engineering to design artificial neural systems, mimicking the morphology of individual neurons, circuits, applications, and overall architectures. This, in turn, affects how information is represented, influences robustness to damage due to the distribution of workload through a "many cores" design, incorporates learning and development, adapts to local change (plasticity), and facilitates evolutionary change.

It might come as a surprise to some that the actual majority of global communications is done via subsea cables that connect continents - and people - together. This editor remember being dumbfounded at the mere idea of this whilst reading Frank Schätzing's "The Swarm", some 9 years ago. However, the installation of subsea datacables isn't new; in fact, the first ever recorded datacable installation occurred in 1850 - though it was simply used for telegraphy. The times change, though, and nowadays, there are cables that can transmit 160 terabits per second connecting continents. According to Microsoft, that's more than 16 million times faster than the average home internet connection, making it capable of streaming 71 million high-definition videos simultaneously.

One such is the new MAREA cable, laid down across the Atlantic by a Microsoft/Facebook joint operation, which connects Bilbao (northern Spain) to Virginia Beach, in Virginia. The cable is settled more than 17,000 feet (five kilometers for us metric system junkies) below the surface of the ocean and measures more than 4,000 miles (again, 6,400 kilometers) in length. It weighs nearly 10.25 million pounds (around 4,629 tons) and is situated along a route south of existing transatlantic cables, which should ensure more resilient and reliable connections for customers on both sides.

AMD's Zen-based Ryzen and Threadripper have been said by the company as representing the "worst case scenario" of performance for their architecture. This is based on the fact that there are clear areas for improvement that AMD's engineers were keenly aware of even at the moment of Zen's tapping-out; inadvertently, some features or improvements were left on the chopping block due to time and budget constraints. As unfortunate as this is - who wouldn't love to have even more performance on their AMD processors - this also means AMD has a clear starting point in terms of improving performance of their Zen micro-architecture.

Spanish website Informatica Cero have gotten their hands on what they say is an exclusive, real piece of information from inside AMD, which shows the company's CPU roadmap until 2019, bringing some new details with it. On the desktop side, there's mention of AMD's "Pinacle Ridge" as succeeding the current Zen-based "Summit Ridge" Ryzen CPUs in 2018. These leverage the same Summit Ridge architecture, but with a performance uplift; this plays well into those reports of 12 nm being used to manufacture the second-generation Ryzen: it's an AMD tick, so to say. As such, the performance uplift likely comes from increased frequencies at the same power envelope, due to 12 nm's denser manufacturing design.

SteelSeries today introduced the Rival 110 gaming mouse. The most affordable mouse from the company to feature 1-to-1 tracking TrueMove optical sensor, the mouse features a 7,200 CPI sensor resolution, and 240 IPS tracking. You can adjust the resolution in increments of 100 CPI. This pseudo-ambidextrous mouse features six buttons in all, with two buttons located along its left side, making it better suited for right-handed users. The switches under the main buttons are rated for 30 million clicks. The mouse has a fixed weight of 87.5 g. The SteelSeries logo on top, and scroll-wheel inserts are embedded with RGB multi-color LEDs, which can be controlled using the SteelSeries Engine software. Available now, the Rival 110 is priced at USD $39.99.

IBASE, a global leader in the manufacture of embedded computing and IIoT solutions, launches its new IB990 PICMG 1.3 full-size CPU card. The board supports the latest 7th/6th Generation Intel Xeon/Core i7/i5/i3 processors with speeds up to 4.0GHz. Based on the chipset family formerly known as Skylake, Intel C236 and Q170 Express chipsets, the high-performance IB990 SBC is built with two DIMM sockets to support DDR4 2133 MHz memory modules with up to 32GB in total and six superfast SATA III ports featuring RAID 0/1/5/10 and 6 Gb/s speed.

As a perfect solution for control systems in factory automation and other industrial applications, IB990 is designed for compute, data and graphics intensive applications and enables up to three independent displays via DVI-I, VGA and DVI-D interface. This long-life single board computer incorporates a rich set of I/O connectivity including two Gigabit Ethernet, four COM, two USB 2.0 and three USB 3.0 ports, plus a Mini PCI-E expansion socket for optional wireless modules. Additionally, the IB990 takes advantage of Intel AMT 11.0 for remote management and powering-on functionalities.

GIGABYTE today rolled out the Aorus GTX 1080 Gaming Box, an external graphics solution built on the same platform as the company's GTX 1070 Gaming Box, but taking advantage of its new GeForce GTX 1080 Mini graphics card, which is the world's most compact card based on this chip. The enclosure powers the card with an 80 Plus Gold-certified 450W PSU. It connects to the host machine using 40 Gbps Thunderbolt 3, and puts out downstream connectivity that includes four 5 Gbps USB 3.0 ports, from which one is a quick-charge port.

Under the hood, the GeForce GTX 1080 graphics card ticks at reference clocks out of the box, but has a software-enabled "OC Mode" which spools them up to 1632/1771 MHz (core/boost). The memory is clocked at 10 GHz (GDDR5X-effective). Display outputs include three DisplayPort 1.4 and one each of HDMI 2.0 and dual-link DVI-D. The enclosure is studded with RGB multi-color LEDs, which you control using the included GIGABYTE RGB Fusion software. The enclosure is expected to be priced around USD $750.

Creative Technology Ltd today announced that its Award-Winning Under-Monitor Sound System, the Sound BlasterX Katana, now supports USB audio connectivity with all Sony PS4 console variants. The updated support allows PS4 users to enjoy cinematic audio performance via USB delivered by the Katana for all their gaming content, including popular titles such as Uncharted: The LostLegacy and Horizon: Zero Dawn, as well as highly anticipated upcoming titles such as Star Wars Battlefront 2, Call of Duty WWII, NBA 2K18 and Destiny 2.

On top of that, users will enjoy an enhanced in-game communication experience that allows them to enjoy a full suite of noise-reduction and voice morphing technologies made possible by Katana's built-in advanced Sound Blaster processor. Previously, Katana users could only connect to their PS4 via optical connection with a separate mic connection to the PS4's controller - all without the benefit of noise reduction and voice morphing enhancements. Also, users can look forward to accessing these technologies on-the-fly while Katana is connected to a PS4, from the convenience of an iOS or Android smartphone or tablet, with an updated version of the Sound Blaster Connect App - which is slated to be released by end-October 2017 on the App Store and Google Play.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the world leader in advanced memory technology, today announced that it is introducing the industry's first embedded Universal Flash Storage (eUFS) solution for use in next-generation automotive applications. Consisting of 128-gigabyte (GB) and 64GB versions, the new eUFS solution has been designed for advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS), next-generation dashboards and infotainment systems that provide comprehensive connected features for drivers and passengers worldwide.

"We are taking a major step in accelerating the introduction of next-generation ADAS and automotive infotainment systems by offering the industry's first eUFS solution for the market much earlier than expected," said Jinman Han, senior vice president of Memory Product Planning & Application Engineering at Samsung Electronics. "Samsung is taking the lead in the growth of the memory market for sophisticated automotive applications, while continuing to deliver leading-edge UFS solutions with higher performance, density and reliability."

GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Co. Ltd, a leading manufacturer of motherboards and graphics cards, has unveiled the new GIGABYTE Z370 AORUS motherboards based on the Intel Z370 chipset. These supercharged motherboards are equipped with a server-grade digital power design which fully support 8th generation Intel Core processors. Performance tuned, the Z370 AORUS Motherboards are compatible with memory modules rated for 4133MHz. With unique features like an ESS Sabre DAC, Smart Fan 5 and RGB Fusion, there's no doubt why gamers turn to AORUS for the ultimate gaming motherboard.

"Following Intel's release of the Z370 chipset platform, GIGABYTE has designed a new, groundbreaking motherboard," said Vincent Liu, Senior Associate Vice President of GIGABYTE's Motherboard Business Unit. "GIGABYTE Z370 AORUS motherboards are designed for gamers who value powerful, yet highly durable motherboards. With our new digital power design, not only will Z370 AORUS motherboards unleash the power of the 8th generation Intel Core processors' they will easily fulfill gamers' demands."

The Koolance VID-NX1080 GPU water block offers two top options - acetal and acrylic - with excellent build quality, good value for your money, and an optional backplate that puts most others to shame. It does fall short on relative performance, but will be a very strong consideration for those on a budget.

ASUS today rolled out the Republic of Gamers (ROG) Swift PG27VQ curved gaming monitor. This 27-inch monitor with an 1800R curved TN-film panel, offers a native resolution of 2560 x 1440 pixels. Bolstering its gaming credentials are a high refresh-rate of 165 Hz, response time as low as 1 ms (GTG), and support for NVIDIA G-SYNC technology. If the 16.8 million colors put out from the display panel itself aren't "RGB lit" enough for you, the monitor features RGB LED elements illuminating a motif behind the panel, and below the monitor stand's pivot; which can be controlled using ASUS Aura Sync RGB software.

Besides putting up a show, the RGB LED elements can be made to work as ambient lighting, which adapts to the display. The GamePlus technology lets you draw OSD crosshairs and frame-rate counter; and GameVisual, which are display presets for various genres of games (FPS, RTS, RPG, etc.). Other key panel specifications include 400 cd/m² maximum brightness, 170°/160° viewing angles, and dynamic mega-contrast ratio. Display inputs include DisplayPort 1.2 (needed for G-SYNC), and HDMI 1.4 (lower than standard refresh rate). The stand offers basic tilt adjustments. The company didn't reveal pricing.

Extreme overclocker Vince "K|NGP|N" Lucido has once again set new performance World Records. Armed with the latest EVGA hardware, a new Intel Core i9 7980XE CPU and Liquid Nitrogen cooling, K|NGP|N was able to overclock the EVGA hardware to new heights, setting the standard for PC enthusiast hardware. Upon obtaining these new World Records, K|NGP|N had this to say:

"Using the new Intel Core i9 7980XE CPU at over 5.7GHz on an EVGA X299 Dark and 4x EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti K|NGP|N's at over 2.3GHz, allowed me to annihilate the existing 3DMark Time Spy World Record at 37,596 points! The new Intel Core i9 7980XE CPU, EVGA X299 Dark and EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti K|NGP|N are incredible!"

ID-COOLING a cooling solution provider focusing on thermal dissipation and fan technology research and production for over 10 years, announced SE-207 Twin Tower Air cooler, featuring a black nickel plated Top Cover, twin tower heatsinks and two cooling fans included. The full cooler is made of 7pcs of heatpipes soldered to the copper base, two sets of aluminum fins, which all covered by a nickel plated top cover, and decorated by uniquely designed heatpipe caps.

Heat dissipation is provided by one 120mm intake fan running at 1300rpmand one PWM 120mm fan (700-1800rpm) in the middle. Fan splitter is included to support 3 fans setup. Extra fan clips are provided too in the box. Universal mounting brackets are included. The latest AMD Ryzen processors are supported. SE-207 is compatible with Intel LGA2066/2011/1366/1150/1151/1155/1156 & AMD AM4/FM2+/FM2/FM1/AM3(+)/AM2(+).

The Glorious Modular Mechanical TKL Keyboard (GMMK-TKL) is a tenkeyless mechanical gaming keyboard manufactured by the guys at Glorious PC Gaming Race. But what really differentiates the GMMK-TKL from your typical mechanical keyboard is the modular design that allows users to easily swap between switches. The GMMK-TKL supports various MX-based switches from popular brands like Cherry, Gateron, Kailh, and Zealios. This design gives the user full control over which switches to use on the keyboard. One can even think out of the box and use a combination of different switches on the same keyboard.

Besides the hot-swappable switch design, the GMMK-TKL has everything that you would expect from a mechanical gaming keyboard. The minimalistic design contains zero branding, which is complemented by a very attractive sandblasted aluminum face plate for a premium look. RGB LED backlighting is also present on the GMMK-TKL. There is support for 16.8 million colors and 18 pre-installed effects plus one user-defined effect.

While enthusiasts are preparing their wallets for the Intel Coffee Lake launch on October 5, Gigabyte is diligently filling retailers' shelves with their upcoming Z370 AORUS motherboards. With as many as six different models to choose from, consumers will surely find a motherboard that best suit their needs. The Gigabyte Z370 AORUS Gaming 7, in particular, is bound to attract a lot of attention from the more hardcore crowd. Being the cream of the crop of Gigabyte's Z370 lineup means that this motherboard will bring many unique features to the table.

An AMD representative recently answered PC World's query regarding the absence of "CrossFire" branding on their latest Radeon Software release, which introduced multi-GPU support for AMD's Vega line of graphics cards. According to the AMD representative, it goes down to a technicality, in that "CrossFire isn't mentioned because it technically refers to DX11 applications. In DirectX 12, we reference multi-GPU as applications must support mGPU, whereas AMD has to create the profiles for DX11. We've accordingly moved away from using the CrossFire tag for multi-GPU gaming."

Overclocker extraordinaire Der8auer has been able to put Intel's flagship, HCC HEDT 7980XE CPU, through its paces under extreme cooling, which resulted in a veritable show of force from the blue giant. Intel's $1,979, 18-core, 36-thread CPU has cemented itself as the flagship consumer CPU of choice, surpassing AMD's 1950X Threadripper in all fields. And yes, we do mean single-core and multi-core benchmarks, but also power consumption figures.

With 18 cores in need of adequate cooling, every piece of real-estate that may serve as an heatsink of sorts comes at a premium; that is why thermal paste for this Intel processor was applied not only to the CPU die itself, but also to the entire PCB around it. Der8auer says that doing this allows heat to be better dissipated form the CPU die, allowing for up to 400 MHz increased clock-speeds under load. Direct contact with the die was also tried, and achieved by cutting off the central pat of the IHS, while keeping the edges of it as a way of better load balancing the weight of the cooler (in this case, an LN2 cooler) over the CPU's PCB, in order to avoid different amounts of pressure on the CPU pins. However, the extreme overclocker ended up not recommending that venue, for it didn't offer consistent success in their extreme cooling efforts.

BIOSTAR continues to lead the way in Crypto Mining with an estimated installation of 1 in every 5 mining systems around the world; thanks to its comprehensive line-up of Intel and AMD dedicated mining motherboards, price-performance positioning and ease-of-use. BIOSTAR now makes it even easier for miners by partnering with ethOS to create a total-solution with its Crypto Mining series motherboards and the ethOS USB flash drive preloaded with ethOS system. With the Plug-and-Mine solution, BIOSTAR brings miners an easy-to-follow, simple to set-up package, welcoming more people to join the crypto mining community.

The ethOS Mining System is one of the most straight-forward operating systems for mining ZCash, Monero, Ethereum and other GPU-minable coins. The setup is simple Plug-and-Mine, without needing a SSD. When paired with BIOSTAR mining boards, building a heavy yet stable mining rig of up to 12 GPUs can be done with ease. These have been tried and tested by both BIOSTAR and ethOS.

ASUS ROG (Republic of Gamers) is recognized as the leader in PC gaming and overclocking performance with a record for delivering the most innovative hardcore hardware for gamers and enthusiasts. GeIL is proud to work with ASUS ROG to provide gamers the most innovative gaming memory, GeIL EVO X ROG-certified RGB Gaming Memory. When paired with certain ASUS ROG motherboards, an automatic performance boost will be enabled for a better overclocking experience.

HyperX, the gaming division of Kingston Technology Company, Inc., is now shipping its next generation gaming headset - the HyperXTM Cloud Alpha - to casual gamers and pro teams around the world. Building on the comfort and sound DNA of previous award-winning headsets, Cloud Alpha offers a range of new and enhanced features, including HyperX Dual Chamber technology for better sound and less distortion. With 50mm drivers, the dual chamber design allows HyperX to tune the bass frequencies separate from the mids and highs, creating a dynamic sound that makes gaming, music and movies more realistic and immersive.

"The Cloud Alpha is the first gaming headset to integrate HyperX dual chamber technology to deliver an unrivaled sound experience," said Ignacio Sune, HyperX EMEA Sales Manager. "Designed and tested in the HyperX labs, Cloud Alpha delivers the best possible audio performance, comfort and build quality for the ultimate competitive advantage for top eSports pros and casual gamers around the world."

Colorful Technology Company Limited, a leading manufacturer of PC hardware, has announced the introduction of three new PCIE SSD models and are the world's first to feature the latest SiliconMotion controller 2262/2263/2263XTL: announcing the COLORFUL CN600 DRAM-less Series, CN600 DRAM series and CP600 iGame Series. All of the new SSDs will be available in volumes of 240GB up to 2TB.

"Although COLORFUL's SSD product lines were just released 3 years ago, thanks to the partnership between SiliconMotion and NAND flash vendors, COLORFUL's SSD products now hold the distinction of being in the top 3 in terms of market share in China. COLORFUL is going to build a storage brand in the future and this new PCIe Series SSD launching today will be the start." - Mr. Jerry Tsao, DGM of COLORFUL Storage talking about the release of the new storage products in a conference.

Despite its gargantuan core-count, the TDP of this chip is rated at 165W, lower than the 180W rated for competing Ryzen Threadripper processors. The other high-end processor launched by Intel is the Core i9-7960X. This 16-core/32-thread chip features clock speeds of 2.80 GHz, with 4.20 GHz Turbo Boost, and 4.40 GHz Turbo Boost Max 3.0. It features 22 MB of shared L3 cache, and 1 MB of dedicated L2 cache per core. The Core i9-7980XE is priced at USD $1,999 in the retail channel; while the Core i9-7960X goes for $1,699.

Intel today announced that its new family of 8th Gen Intel Core desktop processors will be available for purchase beginning Oct. 5, 2017. The new desktop processor family is built for gamers, content creators and overclockers who require premium performance. Ranging from Intel Core i3 to Intel Core i7, these processors deliver premium performance for what comes next, opening the door for a new level of faster, easier and more immersive experiences.

This new family introduces the first-ever 6-core Intel Core i5 desktop processor and first-ever 4-core Intel Core i3 desktop processor. The family offers a wide range of performance options for consumers with unlocked1 "K" processors that deliver maximum tuning flexibility at each brand level and up to 40 platform PCIe 3.0 lanes for system expandability on graphics, storage and I/O. These processors are supported with new Intel Z370 chipset-based motherboards.

G.SKILL International Enterprise Co., Ltd., the world's leading manufacturer of extreme performance memory and gaming peripherals, announces a reworked software for the RIPJAWS series KM780 RGB, KM780R RGB, and KM570 RGB mechanical gaming keyboard. This new v2.0 update has been rewritten to streamline the overall user experience, including automating profile saving and a reorganized user interface to reduce the number of clicks for each action, as well as adding new lighting options. Most notably, the G.SKILL Driver System no longer requires the .NET Framework to work starting from version 2.0.

Through massive amounts of valuable user feedback, the software UI has been improved for a more efficient user experience by reducing the number of required clicks to customize settings, making it easier to learn and more user-friendly. Macros and lighting profiles can now be refreshed and updated to the keyboard directly from the macro and lighting profiles menu, instead of going back and forth between the menu tabs to save any changes. Importing all your configuration and settings is now fully implemented, so exporting and reloading your profiles and settings are much easier. This also lets you easily share your keyboard settings across different PCs or with friends.

Vertagear's SL5000 gaming chair sports a fancy design and good build quality. Its steel frame allows it to support up to 150 kg, and it offers a wide range of adjustability to provide its users with the best possible comfort for even the longest gaming sessions.

While we're still waiting to see AMD's Vega graphics cards undergo a proper custom treatment from the company's AIB partners (MSI included), Micro-Star International has announced at the Tokyo Game Show that they'll be launching yet another version of NVIDIA's GTX 1080 Ti graphics card. This new design revision picks up the triple fan design that has been the staple of MSI's Lightning series of graphics cards, and applies it to the Gaming X brand. The MSI GTX 1080 Ti Gaming X Trio will thus feature 3x of the company's Torx 2.0 fans. The card features a 2.5-slot design that exhausts the hot air to the inside of your case (a minor inconvenience, since MSI's graphics cooling designs are generally considered some of the best out there), and features MSI's Mystic Light RGB tech.

A report out of Expreview says that users should expect Intel's 8700K 6-core processor to easily clock up to 4.8 GHz with conventional cooling methods. Apparently, the chip doesn't even need that much voltage to achieve this feat either; however, thermal constraints are quickly hit when pushing Intel's latest (upcoming) leader for the mainstream desktop parts. Expreview says that due to the much increased temperatures, users who want to eke out the most performance from their CPU purchase will likely have to try and resort to delidding of their 8700K. While that likely wouldn't have been necessary with Intel's 7700K processors, remember that here we have two extra CPU cores drawing power and producing waste heat, so it makes sense that thermals will be a bigger problem.

This is understandable: Intel is still using their much chagrined (and divisive) TIM as a heat conductor between the CPU die and the CPU's IHS (Integrated Heat Spreader), which has been proven to be a less than adequate way of conducting said heat. However, we all knew this would be the case; remember that Intel's HEDT HCC processors also feature this TIM, and in that case, we're talking of up to 18-core processors that can cost up to $1,999 - if Intel couldn't be bothered to spend the extra cents for actual solder as an interface material there, they certainly wouldn't do so here. As with almost all peeks at as of yet unreleased products, take this report (particularly when it comes to frequencies, as each CPU overclocks differently) with a grain of salt, please.

G.SKILL International Enterprise Co., Ltd., the world's leading manufacturer of extreme performance memory and gaming peripherals, announces a new lineup of Trident Z RGB DDR4 memory kits with enhanced compatibility on the latest AMD platforms. Specifically designed for AMD Ryzen and Ryzen Threadripper platforms, now there are vibrant options up to the popular DDR4-3200MHz CL14 or the massive 128GB (8x16GB) kits at up to 2933MHz. For a full range of memory kit capacity options, the new Trident Z RGB memory kit models are available at DDR4-2400MHz in 2-, 4-, and 8-module kit configurations with 8GB and 16GB modules, which allows for 16GB, 32GB, 64GB, or 128GB memory kits for your AMD system.

AMD currently has two platform offerings, where Ryzen supports dual-channel with 2 or 4 memory modules and Threadripper supports quad-channel memory with 4 or 8 memory modules. To give a boost in memory performance to AMD number-crunching workstations and high-end graphic rendering systems, G.SKILL offers several selections for each AMD platform, including memory speeds of up to DDR4-2933MHz or ultra-high capacity at 128GB (8x16GB).

After showing it off some months ago, Enermax is finally releasing their Equilence mid-tower PC case for the masses. Their Equilence is focused on providing ultra silent operation of the internal components, while keeping the tempered glass side window users are so fond off, and further fleshes out Enermax's case chops. This is done through the usage of high density, noise dampening foam on the top, front and left side of the case, leaving the tempered glass and breathing holes the only places where sound might escape through.

The top part of the foam can be removed for users to install extra fans or an up to 360 mm radiator, though that will, of course, reduce the sound dampening capabilites of the case. The left side panel uses 4 mm thick tinted panoramic glass, with dampening mechanisms on its mounting screws for reduced vibration. Users can mount a 360 mm, 240 mm or 120 mm radiator at the front of the unit, and a side wall offers room for an extra 240 mm or 120 mm radiator.

DDR5, the natural successor to today's DDR4 memory that brings with double the bandwidth and density versus current generation DDR4. along with delivering improved channel efficiency, is expected to be available in the market starting 2019. JEDEC, the standards body responsible for the DDR specifications, says that base DDR5 frequencies should be at around DDR5-4800 - more than double that of base DDR4's 2133, but a stone throw away from today's fastest (and uber, kidney-like-expensive) 4600 MHz memory kits from the likes of G.Skill and Corsair.

DDR5 is expected to support data rates up to 6.4 Gb/s delivering 51.2 GB/s max, up from 3.2 Gb/s and 25.6 GB/s for today's DDR4. The new version will push the 64-bit link down to 1.1V and burst lengths to 16 bits from 1.2V and 8 bits. In addition, DDR5 lets voltage regulators ride on the memory card rather than the motherboard. CPU vendors are also expected to expand the number of DDR channels on their processors from 12 to 16, which could drive main memory sizes to 128 GB from 64 GB today. Whether this will be good for end-users in relation to DDR5 memory prices remains open for debate; however, considering the rampant memory prices this side of 2017, chances are it won't be unless supply increases considerably.

We here at TPU wrote an extensive editorial on the issue of web mining possibly becoming the revenue model of the future. The Pirate Bay may not have been the first site to adopt Coinhive's javascript code for mining purposes when users access its pages, but it was the highest-profile one to be caught, since the performance hogging was enough that users started seeing diminished responsiveness on their systems when visiting the torrent site. On that editorial piece, we talked about the issues of web mining, and compared it to the advent of ad-based revenue models for websites. A piece of our argument revolved around human nature and the pursuit of higher and higher revenue, in a system that would typically reward abuse with higher amounts of mining-generated money - and how users, browsers, and ad-blocking would evolve to also block these mining efforts.

Well, Adblock Plus has gone and done it, adding a filter for Coinhive-based web mining, filtering the mining script. This will likely ignite a cat and mouse game between web mining providers, users, and the browsers and extensions we use to protect ourselves, but it isn't something we hadn't mentioned before. The Adblock Plus extension is available for Chrome, Firefox, and Android. Look after the break for instructions on how to add these filters to your Adblock Plus-enabled browser of choice.

It turns out that NVIDIA is giving the GeForce GTX 1070 more than a minor refresh. The new performance-segment SKU, which is slated to come out just before Holiday 2017, could perform very very close to the GTX 1080, although sufficiently spaced out from the GTX 1080 refresh (featuring 11 Gbps memory). According to specifications leaked by Chinese tech publication MyDrivers, NVIDIA will give this SKU the coveted "Ti" moniker after all, and carve it out from the "GP104" silicon.

According to the report, the GTX 1070 Ti will be carved out of the "GP104" silicon by disabling just 1 out of 20 streaming multiprocessors, compared to the GTX 1070 desktop, which has 5 out of 20 disabled. This results in a CUDA core count of 2,432, which is just 128 fewer than that of the GTX 1080. The clock speeds of the GTX 1070 Ti are higher than the GTX 1070, too. It comes with a core clock of 1607 MHz, 1683 MHz GPU Boost, and an untouched 8.00 GHz (GDDR5-effective) memory clock. Interestingly, the TDP of this chip is 180W, which is the same as the GTX 1080. NVIDIA will reportedly launch the GeForce GTX 1070 Ti in early-November, 2017, at a price that's 12.5 percent cheaper than the GTX 1080.

TUNAI Creative has once again come to the technology forefront with the development of their new product, DRUM. They are known for bringing to the world products such as FIREFLY, which is the tiniest Bluetooth music receiver that allows for easy upgrade your car and home audio systems and CLIP, the award-winning Bluetooth headphone amplifier that upgrades any wired headset into a wireless headset. With the successes of FIREFLY and CLIP, there has been a demand for TUNAI to create a compatible headphone that is small and with great sound which is how the in-ear headphone DRUM was created.

DRUM is a high-resolution bass enhanced audiophile earphone that is engineered to deliver well-rounded sound throughout the audio spectrum including clear, high-end, rich mid-range and powerful bass. It is designed to meet the latest high-quality audio standards established by Japan Audio Society (JAS). Unlike regular in-ear headphone designs using small to medium size drivers DRUM has been modified to use a larger 13mm dynamic driver for richer, more powerful bass and wider soundstage.

The EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti FTW3 ELITE cards are now available with 12 GHz of GDDR5X memory, giving it 528 GB/s of memory bandwidth! These cards are available with either the ELITE Black or White shroud, and of course comes with EVGA's exclusive iCX technology, giving you 9 thermal sensors, onboard thermal LED indicators and incredible cooling with quiet operation.